One of the great ancient cities of Asia – Anuradhapura was Sri Lanka’s capital for over a thousand years and the spiritual centre of Theravada Buddhism across the region for much of that period. Its UNESCO-listed sacred city is extraordinary in both its monumental scale and its continuing daily use as one of the most actively visited pilgrimage sites in the Buddhist world.
The oldest documented living human-planted tree on earth – 2,300 years old and surrounded by pilgrims in white robes offering flowers and lamps in a daily tradition that has continued without interruption since 288 BCE. The atmosphere around the Sri Maha Bodhi during the morning puja is unlike anything else available on any Sri Lanka cultural itinerary.
The Ruwanwelisaya’s 90-metre hemispherical dome of solid brick, built in the 2nd century BCE and still gleaming white above the ancient plain, is one of the most impressive religious monuments in Asia – and the scale of the broader Anuradhapura stupa complex speaks directly to the ambition and the organisational power of the civilisation that created it.
The ruins of a monastic complex that once housed over 5,000 monks and served as a centre of Buddhist scholarship across Asia, alongside the ancient reservoirs of Anuradhapura whose engineering sophistication still draws study from modern hydraulic engineers – together providing the full portrait of a city that was, for centuries, one of the most important in the world.
